Patriarch of Venice

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Saint Mark's Basilica, the see of the Patriarch of Venice
Saint Mark's Basilica, the see of the Patriarch of Venice

The Patriarch of Venice is one of the few Patriarchs in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. The diocese of Venice was created in 774, but it was only in 1457 that its bishops were accorded the title of the patriarch by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, for political considerations. Venice is the oldest surviving instance of the use of such a purely honorary title in the Latin Church. When it was granted, it was considered to succeed to the transferred older patriarchal see of Grado as its seat was moved from Grado in 1451. Venice is currently one of the four Latin sees (historically also Rome itself) to be accorded the title of Patriarchate, together with Lisbon, the East Indies and Jerusalem. Currently, the only advantage of this purely formal title is the bishop's place of honor in papal processions.

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Venice is an ecclesiastical territory, usually called patriarchate when its ordinary is styled Patriarch of Venice. The mother church of the archdiocese is the Basilica di San Marco in Venezia. As a metropolitan see, it is the chief diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Venezia. Its suffragan dioceses are Adria-Rovigo, Belluno-Feltre, Chioggia, Concordia-Pordenone, Padova, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza and Vittorio Veneto, the former Ceneda.[1]. By tradition, the Patriarch of Venice is created a cardinal at the consistory following his appointment, although the Pope is not bound by law to do so. A large number of the men holding this office have been elected Pope. Three of these were in the 20th century alone: Pope Pius X (1903), Pope John XXIII (1958) and Pope John Paul I (1978).

The current Patriarch of Venice is Angelo Cardinal Scola, who himself was considered a papabile (strong contender) in the 2005 Conclave that brought Pope Benedict XVI to the Chair of Saint Peter.

Contents

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

For the earlier history of this title, see also Patriarch of Grado.

The Venetian islands at first belonged to the diocese of Altino or the diocese of Padua. It is certain that Bishop Tricidius of Padua took refuge on the island of Malamocco. But when Tricidius returned to Padua there still remained a bishop at Malamocco (Methamancus), and the Venetian islands remained under his jurisdiction until 775. In that year, with the consent of pope Adrian I and the Patriarch of Grado, that an episcopal see was erected on the island of Olivolo (afterwards called Castello) with jurisdiction over Gemini, Rialto, Luprio and Dorsoduro. The first bishop (nominated by the doge of Venice), Obelerius,was invested and enthroned by the doge, but ordained by the Patriarch of Grado. The rest of the islands which now form Venice remained under the aforesaid Patriarch. After Obelerius' death, the doge named a certain Cristoforo in 798. Giovanni, Patriarch of Grado, refused to consecrate him on account of his extreme youth. However, Giovanni was assassinated, his successor, after much hesitation, ordained Cristoforo.

Under the fourth bishop, Orso, the relics of the Evangelist St. Mark were transferred from Muslim dominated Alexandria, Egypt and brought to safely to Venice. Two Venetian merchants were said to have wrapped the relics in pork so as to avoid detection by the Muslim customs officials. Meanwhile, Venice (as well as Aquileia and Grado) had had a tradition that St. Mark himself had preached the Gospel in the lagoon area. The possession of the relics of the saint lent greater weight to the tradition and the Venetian state capitalized on it making the symbol of St. Mark, the winged lion, its very own. In fact, the Basilica of St. Mark was until the 19th century, the private chapel of the Doge. The bishop's cathedral remained St. Peter's in Castello.

As many bodies of saints had already been brought from the East, so, following the conquest of Constantinople, a still greater number now came to Venice, besides the Madonna called Nicopoeia, which is still in St. Mark's. In 1225 Marco II Michel finally secured the exemption of the clergy from lay jurisdiction, except in cases involving real property. Jacopo Albertini (1311) became attached to the schism of Antipope Nicholas V and Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian, whom he crowned with the Lombard Iron Crown in 1327, and was therefore deposed. Under Nicolo' Morosini (1336) the dispute between the clergy and republican government concerning the mortuary tithes was settled, though it began afresh under Paolo Foscari in 1367, only to end in 1376.

During the Schism of the West, Venice adhered to the Roman obedience. In 1457, upon the death of Domenico Michel, Patriarch of Grado, Pope Nicholas V suppressed the patriarchate and the Bishopric of Castello, incorporating them both in the new Patriarchate of Venice by the Papal Bull "Regis aeterni", thus Venice succeeded to the whole metropolitan jurisdiction of Grado's eccelsiastical province, including the sees of Dalmatia. The election of the patriarch belonged to the Senate of Venice, and this practice sometimes led to differences between the republic and the Holy See. In like manner parishoners elected their parish priests, by the right of patronage. Girolamo Quirini, O.P. (1519-54), had many disputes with the clergy, the Government and the Holy See; to avoid these disputes, the Senate decreed that in future only senators should be eligible. Those elected after this were frequently laymen. Giovanni Trevisano, O.S.B. (1560), introduced the Tridentine reforms, founding the seminary, holding synods and collecting the regulations made by his predecessors (Constitutiones et privilegia patriarchatus et cleri Venetiarum). In 1581 the visita Apostolica was sent to Venice; a libellus exhortatorius was published, in which the visita highly praised the clergy of Venice.

San Marco di Venezia, as seen from the Piazza San Marco
San Marco di Venezia, as seen from the Piazza San Marco

In 1807, by favour of the Napoleonic Viceroy of Italy, the Neapolitan Nicola Gambroni was promoted to the patriarchate and of his own authority transferred the patriarchal seat to the Basilica of St. Mark, uniting the two chapters; he reduced the number of parish churches from seventy to thirty. The work of enlarging the choir of the basilica brought to light the relics of St. Mark (1808). In 1811 Napoleon I intruded into the See of Venice Stefano Bonsignore, Bishop of Faenza, but in 1814 that prelate returned to his own see.

In 1818 the Diocese of Torcello and bishopric of Carole were merged in the archdiocese of Venice, while the dioceses of the Venetian territory were placed under its metropolitan jurisdiction. Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, afterwards Pius X, succeeded in 1893; he was refused recognition by the Italian Government, which claimed the right of nomination formerly employed by the Habsburg Emperor of Austria and in earlier times by the Venetian Senate, but after eleven months this pretension was abandoned.

[edit] Lentan Stational Churches[1]

Ash Wednesday - S. Marco

Thursday - S. Rafaele Arcangelo (Anzolo Rafael)

Friday - Sti. Giovanni e Paolo (S. Zanipolo)

Saturday - S. Maria Zobenigo

[edit] First Week of Lent

Sunday - Sti. Zacaria ed Atanasio

Monday - Sti. Bartolomeo e Francesco da Paola

Tuesday - S. Simeone (S. Simon Grando)

Wednesday - Sta. Maria Gloriosa (ai Frari)

Thursday - S. Eustachio (s. Stae)

Friday - Sti. Apostoli

Saturday - S. Giuseppe di Castello (S. Isepo de Castello)

[edit] Second Week of Lent

Sunday - Ss. Salvatore (S. Salvador)

Monday - S. Silvestro

Tuesday - S. Cristoforo (Madonna dell'Orto)

Wednesday - Sti. Cassiano e Cecilia (S. Cassan)

Thursday - Sta. Maria della Salute

Friday - S. Giobbe profeta

Saturday - Sti. Ermagora e Fortunato (S. Marcuola)

[edit] Third Week of Lent

Sunday - S. Nicolò di Tolentino

Monday - S. Maria di M. Carmini

Tuesday - S. Francesco a Vigna

Wednesday - S. Giacomo di Luprio (S. Giacomo dell'Orio)

Thursday - S. Pantaleone (S. Pantalon)

Friday - S. Eufemia della Giudecca

Saturday - S. Giovanni Battista in Bragora

[edit] Fourth Week of Lent

Sunday - Sti. Geremia e Lucia

Monday - S. Canziano (S. Canzian)

Tuesday - Ss. Redentore alla Guidecca (Ss. Redentor alla Giudecca)

Wednesday - S. Paolo Apostolo (S. Polo)

Thursday - S. Martino

Friday - S. Alvise

Saturday - S. Nicolò dei Mendicoli

[edit] Fifth Week of Lent

Passion Sunday - San Pietro in Castello

Monday - Sti. Gervaso e Protasio (S. Trovaso)

Tuesday - S. Felice (S. Felise)

Wednesday - Sta. Maria del Rosario (i Gesuati)

Thursday - S. Gerolamo

Friday - Sti Stefano e Agostino

Saturday - S. Elena

[edit] Holy Week

[edit] List of bishops of Venice

  • Obelerius 775-798

[edit] List of Patriarchs of Venice

For the earlier patriarchs in the area, see List of Aquileia Bishops and patriarchs

[edit] See also

Giovanni Tiepolo, b. 1571 - d. 1631, patriarch of Venice - See JSTOR: The Venetian Upper Clergy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth ... An example of this occurs in his analysis of the writings of the patriarch of Venice, Giovanni Tiepolo (d. 1631), which deal with the veneration of the ... [2]

Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, b. 1579 - d. 1653, Cardinal, patriarch of Venice 1631-1644 [3], [4]

[edit] Sources and references

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Archdiocese of Venezia, Catholic-Hierarchy.org, url accessed May 22, 2006
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/a/t/Patriarch_of_Venice_c142.html"
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